News Upgraded Falcon 9 FT and Falcon Heavy performance values

[RGClark]

SpaceX now lists the payload to LEO of the Falcon 9 FT as 22.8 metric tons for the expendable version:

SpaceX updates the capabilities of its Falcon rockets on its website.
The rockets can lift even more than the company thought.
By Loren Grush on May 1, 2016 11:48 am @lorengrush
http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/1/11549456/spacex-falcon-9-heavy-launch-capabilities-weight-mars

It should be noted that the 13 metric ton payload to LEO for the F9 v1.1 that was cited by SpaceX, prior to the FT upgrade, is actually assuming F9 first stage reusability. A fully expendable version of the F9 v1.1 actually had a ca. 16 metric ton payload to LEO.

This was indicated by Gwynne Shotwell in a 2014 interview where she said without reusability the F9 payload is about 30% higher than the cited amount which would put it at about 16 metric tons:

NASA, CNES Warn SpaceX of Challenges in Flying Reusable Falcon 9 Rocket
May 5, 2014 by Amy Svitak in On Space

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell says Falcon 9's reusability is already designed into the rocket's first stage, including the weight of the landing legs that would otherwise detract from the rocket's performance. She also said Falcon 9 retains 30% performance margin over the company's advertised mass-to-orbit capability of 4,850 kg to GTO margin SpaceX is using to conduct operational trials of a reusable Falcon 9 first stage.

http://aviationweek.com/blog/nasa-cnes-warn-spacex-challenges-flying-reusable-falcon-9-rocket

This is confirmed by a NASA launch performance calculator that also gives a 16.6 metric ton payload to LEO for the expendable version of the F9 v1.1:

NASA Launch Services Program's
Launch Vehicle Performance Web Site.
http://elvperf.ksc.nasa.gov/Pages/Query.aspx

On this query page enter 200 km for the altitude and 28.5 degrees for the launch inclination to match the latitude of Cape Canaveral, otherwise the payload will be reduced.

Since for the Falcon 9 FT, SpaceX said the payload to GTO was increased by 30%, estimates also put the increase in payload to LEO by 30%, which would put it in the 20 to 22 metric ton range.

Bob Clark

 

[Urwumpe]

Small reminder on how to be critical with typical Elon Musk marketing double speech:

16/13 = 123%

23% is not the new 30%

 

[RGClark]

That NASA performance calculator actually gives the payload to LEO of the F9 v1.1 as 16,625 kg. So the ratio to the cited 13,000 kg is:
16,625/13,000 = 1.2788, close enough to a 30% increase.

Bob Clark

 

[RisingFury]

http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities

 

[Kyle]

BrianJ's F9 1200kg to LEO figure is pretty close!

 

[RGClark]

BrianJ's F9 1200kg to LEO figure is pretty close!

Do you mean 12,000 kg for the reusable version?

BTW, about the Falcon Heavy, Elon, for the first time as far as I know, expressed some trepidation about the Falcon Heavy's 27 engines:

SpaceX undecided on payload for first Falcon Heavy flight.
May 3, 2016 Stephen Clark

“There’s quite a high pucker factor about Falcon Heavy,” said Elon Musk, SpaceX’s billionaire founder and CEO, in a press conference after the company’s last launch April 8.
“Maybe we should have named it the Falcon 27,” he joked. “We thought maybe that people might balk at that.”
...
Falcon Heavy’s challenges are not lost on Musk.
The last rocket to fly with so many engines firing simultaneously was Russia’s doomed N1 moon rocket, the Soviet-era answer to NASA’s Saturn 5, which flew four times and never made it out of the atmosphere.
“There are a lot of engines to work simultaneously, and you have three times as many separation events,” Musk said. “It’s a lot trickier of a proposition than Falcon 9, but the payload capabilities are amazing, and it’s got a lot of potential, particularly for doing the heavy high-altitude geostationary satellites that currently can only be flown by Ariane, if it’s a really heavy satellite.”http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/05/03/spacex-undecided-on-payload-for-first-falcon-heavy-flight/

Bob Clark